VietNamNet Bridge – What will happen with Vinashin, which is facing a lawsuit to be raised by foreign creditors?
The fact that Vinashin still has not reached any agreement with foreign creditors about the way to deal with the 600 million dollar debt has caught the special attention from the public. One of the creditors has decided to take legal proceedings against Vinshin to force the shipbuilding group to pay debts.
The Vinashin’s story not only causes the headache to the group, but to the whole national economy. The thing that needs to be done now is to think about what to do to settle the case for the benefits for the whole economy.
It is clear that these are commercial debts without the guarantee of the government of Vietnam. This means that when Vinashin cannot pay debts, the government does not have to pay debt for Vinashin.
Thoi bao Kinh te Saigon has quoted its sources as saying that the creditors only have in their hands a letter from a government agency confirming the loans of Vinashin. The letter just says that the government agency knows that Vinashin borrowed money from foreign partners, while it does not say that it came forward and guaranteed for the loans.
Creditors seem to be impatient when hearing about the bad financial capability of Vinashin. The Dutch Elliott VIN, one of Vinashin’s creditors, has decided to sue Vinashin to ask for debt payment. After the information about the lawsuit was released, some experts said that the best solution for now is letting Vinashin declare the bankruptcy.
In fact, Vinashin has fallen into disolvency, which means that it has fallen into the state of bankruptcy. The fact that Vinashin has been restructured two times with big changes in the apparatus and organization, by the nature, is a kind of bankruptcy and re-organizing.
If Vinashin declares the bankruptcy, Elliiott, like other creditors, will have to wait for its turn to get money bank after the liquidation of Vinashin.
However, the problem is that Elliott not only sues Vinashin alone, but it sues the 21 companies belonging to Vinashin as well. In Vietnam, Vinashin is known as a shipbuilding economic group. However, the word “economic group” does not have much legal significance, because “economic group” does not have a legal status.
Therefore, regarding the borrowing of 600 million dollars, the creditors signed the credit contract with Vinashin, which acts as the borrower, and the 21 subsidiaries as the guarantors for Vinashin (in order link the 22 companies). The contract clearly stipulates that in case Vinashin cannot pay debts on schedule, the 21 companies–guarantors have to take the responsibility for paying debts as if they are the debtors.
Therefore, in this case, it is unfeasible to let Vinashin go bankrupted, because it is impossible to declare the bankruptcy for all the 22 big companies.
Some analysts believe that the best solution for now is to negotiate with creditors to reach an “agreement outside the court”. The biggest advantage of the solution is that there are a lot of creditors, and not all of them agree to sue Vinashin, possibly because they are still awaiting the solution to deal with the debts in order to minimize loss.
It is clear that it would be better for creditors if all of them, not only Elliott, unanimously agree to take legal proceedings.
Therefore, the thing that needs to be thought about at this moment is conducting negotiations with creditors. Experts also think that reaching an agreement is a possibility.
In order to prepare for the negotiations, experts believe that it is necessary to set up a debt trade company which will come forward and buy back the debts from Vinashin and from the 21 companies-guarantors.
A domestic bank has sent words that it wants to buy the debts at the price equal to 35 percent of the face value.
Experts have emphasized that in this case, the legal entity which comes forward and negotiates with foreign creditors should be the company which buys back Vinashin’s debts, not the government of Vietnam nor the state budget. Only by doing is, will the Vinashin’s debt restructuring be implemented.
Source: TBKTSG
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